


Girls' Night In

by mage_989



Category: Almost Human
Genre: Female Friendship, Female-Centric, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-22
Updated: 2015-03-22
Packaged: 2018-03-19 01:07:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 781
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3590547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_989/pseuds/mage_989
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sandra asks Valerie to join her for a night away from work.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Girls' Night In

**Author's Note:**

> This is a companion story to O Captain My Captain. You don’t need to have read it first it just provides more context for this story.

Valerie had arrived early at the apartment and was now late as she stood at the door too nervous to knock. Relax, Valerie told herself. If the captain didn’t want her to be here she wouldn’t have offered to spend the evening with her.

Well the offer was clearly a bad idea Valerie thought and turned to leave. She got halfway down the hall before she realized she was being stupid and turned back around. If her polpsych evaluations suggested she focus less on work she was going to focus less on work, at least for tonight.

She checked her phone for the fourth time to make sure she had the right apartment and knocked loudly before she could lose her nerve. 

The door opened to reveal Sandra in a pair of old jeans and a t-shirt that looked like it was designed by Jackson Pollock.

“Hey, glad you could make it.”

Valerie blinked, shocked at the sight before her.

“Captain.”

“I’m off duty it’s Sandra.”

“Right of course, sorry, I just…”

Sandra nodded in understanding. 

“It’s the shirt right? It throws everyone off. Come in.”

Valerie did and as she hung her jacket in the closet a large dog approached her.

“Rufus, be nice to our guest.”

“He’s cute,” Valerie said, as she knelt down to pet him. 

“Can I get you anything?”

“Just water would be great.”

Sandra went to the fridge and called back over her shoulder.

“I’m ordering in, the menu’s on the table if you want anything.” 

Valerie picked up the tablet off the coffee table and looked over the menu. She scrolled through the items and then, because she still felt self-conscious about being with her boss in her off hours, picked the cheapest option they had; besides Sandra had already ticked off her favourite flavour of wings.

Sandra came over and handed her a glass.

“Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. Are you done?”

“Yeah.” She handed back the tablet and Sandra sent off the order.

Valerie set her glass down and noticed the various bottles of base coat and remover that sat out.

“You do your own nails?” 

Sandra nodded. “I always pick a new colour for the week ahead.”

Painting their nails together was an activity normally reserved for pre-teens, but having thrown caution to the wind already by coming over Valerie kind of wanted to join her. 

“Do you have pink?”

Sandra snorted. “Do I have pink? Come with me.”

Valerie followed her into the bathroom where she was confronted with a display of dozens and dozens of nail-polishes set up along the far wall. All the polish bottles were arranged by colour, brand, and alphabetical. 

“That is very…meticulous.”

Sandra chuckled.

“What can I say? I was injured and on leave and very, very bored.”

Valerie picked a hot pink shade and headed back to the living room, but on the way her observation skills kicked in and she couldn’t help but look over the photos hanging on the walls.

There were the usual items, family portraits, award ceremonies, but what interested Valerie the most was a picture of Sandra in uniform standing with a tall guy with a wide smile on his face and hair falling into his eyes. The expression on her face in the picture looked like a mixture of amusement and frustration. As if she didn’t know whether to laugh or punch him.

“My old partner,” Sandra explained when she noticed what Valerie was looking at. Her eyes narrowed. “He’s a good cop, and I’ll get him back to work if I have to drag him in at gun point.”

Valerie didn’t say anything to that. Tonight wasn’t the night for either of them to poke at sore wounds.

Thankfully the food arrived shortly after that and then the night dissolved into eating far too much fried food and yelling at the TV screen. 

“What kind of a call was that?!”

“No cares about fish substitutes get back to the game!”

“Why are you putting in Anderson? The guy can’t kick to save his life!”

“Learn to pass Jones! Soccer is a team sport!”

***

It was late when Valerie finally got her jacket on to go home, but her nails shone when the light hit them and all the awkwardness she’d felt about coming had long since left. 

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

“No, I mean for everything today. You didn’t have to and…it’s been too long since I’ve done something like this.”

Sandra smiled.

“You’re welcome, and we’ll do this again if our team gets its act together and makes the playoffs.”

Valerie smiled back at her.

“I’d like that.” 

“Great I‘ll see you on Monday.”

“Yeah.”

The End


End file.
